CARY, N.C. – Not even a one-year break due to the pandemic could interrupt the MEAC dominance of the Norfolk State men's cross country team.
The Spartans won their second straight conference crown and extended their own MEAC record with their 14th title all-time on Friday morning at WakeMed Soccer Park. Led by MEAC individual champ
Evans Cheruiyot, four Spartans placed in the top seven to earn All-MEAC honors. More impressively, the Spartans took first, second and third places for the second straight MEAC meet.
The conference did not hold a championship during the 2020-21 academic year due to the pandemic.
Cheruiyot, who was runner-up behind teammate
Meshack Kipchirchir at the 2019 championship, switched places with Kipchirchir on Friday. Cheruiyot ran a MEAC season-best time of 25:11 to run away with the title. Kipchirchir was second in 25:52.5.
Isa Suleiman, running in his first MEAC cross country championship, completed the 1-2-3 sweep with a time of 26:14.3. Like Cheruiyot and Kipchirchir, senior
Lelei Too also collected his second career All-MEAC honor. He was seventh in 26:46.3.
Junior
Je'Shawn Walker rounded out NSU's top five finishers with a 25
th-place showing (28:36.2).
NSU head coach
Kenneth Giles was named the MEAC Most Outstanding Men's Coach.
The Spartans will participate in two weeks at the NCAA Southeast Regional hosted by the University of Kentucky on Nov. 12.
"This was a total team effort, from our President "Dr. J" to our Athletics Director Ms. Webb to all our support staff. It's been a challenging year for us to get to this point, but it all paid off with a great championship performance," Giles said. "Evans put together the best race of his career, and Isa is finally injury free and is beginning to show why he was one of the top runners in the country two years ago. We look forward to another great performance at regionals."
